


Half a Soul, Divided

by awalkingdenial



Series: Joshler Soulmates AUs [1]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, First Meetings, Josh works in Brendon's tattoo shop, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Strangers, Tyler is struck, very slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 16:32:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9829673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awalkingdenial/pseuds/awalkingdenial
Summary: Tyler has travelled and looked for his soulmate, the person that will complete his soulmate tattoo at first sight, but has never found them. He goes back home and decides to get it completed by himself, renouncing to the search. He meets Josh.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know the idea crossed my mind and I had to write it down

 

Tyler had realized, after more than twenty-one years of breathing the same air as everyone else, that it wasn’t fate, it wasn’t luck, it wasn’t circumstances that made him different. He just was. _Different_.

 

He didn’t think of himself as some weird yet creative outcast that would end up being an artist or enjoying life at its best. He was different in the sense that there was something that just didn’t work with him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t figure that out.

 

Maybe that was the reason why he couldn’t have nice things. Maybe that was the reason he couldn’t find his soulmate.

 

It was uncommon to find soulmates after turning eighteen. Their world functioned like that; a clock engine connecting people to let them grow up and old together, happy, supported, loved. 

 

It didn’t feel nice to be left out also because, Tyler hated to admit it, he was one of those people who needed someone to share experiences with. His mind worked like a lens that distorted reality: sometimes it projected things too close, other times transposed them too far. The worst times everything became blurry, and Tyler lost his grip on reality.

 

He kept looking at the sun getting born from the stretched horizon before his eyes. Watching dawns sitting on that hillside soothed his desolation. He raised the sleeve of his sweatshirt and looked down at the tattoo on his wrist. It was nothing complex. Two circumferences, a red one inside a black one, and something like a stylized skeleton on the left of the circle they created. 

 

The right side was empty. Would always be probably. He let his fingers graze it.

 

Tyler’s eyes widened as a crazy idea stroke his mind like a lightning. 

 

 

***

 

 

Carried away by the excitement and heat of the moment, Tyler hadn’t realized his friend’s Brendon tattoo shop would have still been closed. He stood in front of it like an idiot. It was half past seven in the morning.

 

Another detail he hadn’t thought of was that he’d been traveling out of town for almost three years now. Maybe Brendon didn’t work there anymore. Maybe it was rude to show up like that.

 

“Hey,” Tyler almost jumped in surprise at the voice behind him. 

 

He turned and stared. It was a boy, probably his age, in tight-black-ripped-skinny jeans and a black hoodie with the word “alien” written on it in green capital letters. He had mild pink-orange-red hair.

 

“Can I help you?” he smiled, almost amused.

 

“Er, I don’t think so,” he said. Then he thought about it again. “Actually, you could. Does Brendon Urie still own this tattoo shop?”

 

The cute boy raised an eyebrow. His eyes were sweet, brown, more like chestnut honey than chocolate. “Yeah. He has for years,” he nodded, taking out some keys from his pocket.

 

“Oh,” Tyler frowned. “Well, _I_ haven’t been around _for years._ Last time I was here the shop’s name wasn’t even this one,” he looked up at the sign over the shop window. It read _Panic!_. He looked back down and saw the guy opening the door. “You work here?”

 

“Yeah, I do. Brendon is both my employer and one of my best friends,” he smiled. 

 

_Teeth carved by God_ , he thought, tilting his head as his heart fluttered a little bit. This guy’s soulmate was so lucky. Tyler couldn’t even imagine how being destined to someone this beautiful would feel. “Are you opening? Isn’t it too early?”

 

He turned to Tyler. “I wanted to finish some sketches before we officially open at nine,” he hesitated a bit. “Wanna come wait for Brendon inside? Unless you have better things to do, obviously.”

 

Tyler felt the corners of his lips go up. “Sure, thank you. I’m Tyler Joseph,” he stuck out his hand.

 

“Nice to meet you, Tyler. I’m Joshua Dun, but everyone calls me Josh,” he smiled again and shook Tyler’s hand. “So, Tyler, wanna come in?”

 

“Have you had breakfast?”

 

Josh frowned. “I’m awake and rested enough, but I wouldn’t say no to a coffee.”

 

“I’ll be right back.”

 

 

***

 

While he was in line at Starbucks, Tyler decided he was dumb mess. 

 

“Why didn’t you ask him what kind of coffee he liked?” he muttered.

 

“What, sir?” the waitress asked.

 

“Sorry, I was just talking to myself,” he shook his head. “A blonde roasted coffee, with caramel, and..”

 

 

***

 

“I’m sorry,” Tyler blurted out. “I have no idea why I didn’t ask you what kind of coffee you prefer.”

 

Josh shook his head and chuckled, leaving his pencil on the open album. “It’s okay, you were kind enough to buy me one, I won’t complain. Come sit,” he invited Tyler. “What did you take me?”

“Blonde roasted coffee with caramel?” Tyler tried as if it were a quiz and he wasn’t sure of the correct answer. He took a sit.

 

Josh’s lips parted. “Oh, wow… It’s actually one of my favorites.”

 

“Is it for real?”

 

“I have no reason to lie to you,” he said, taking a sip and humming appreciatively. “Anyway, _Ty_. Do you need to do something tattoo related or are you just paying a visit?”

 

“I actually need to do something, yes,” he looked at Josh in the eyes. “I wanna make my soulmate tattoo unrecognizable. I wanna fill it and change it.”

 

“Oh,” Josh’s eyes fell on his lips, then turned away. Tyler’s blood felt like boiling. “You haven’t found your soulmate yet?”

 

Tyler would have snapped if he’d heard pity in his tone, but he didn’t. “No.”

 

“Me neither,” Josh whispered, blushing for the first time that day. It made Tyler’s chest _ache_. 

 

“How come?” slipped from his mouth. “That was a stupid a question.”

 

“I got involved in a car accident on my eighteenth birthday. I was in a coma for two years.”

 

“ _Two years_? Fuck… That’s… I’m sorry, if that has any value. I’m glad you woke up,” Tyler murmured. His heart was beating so hard he thought it might have broken his ribs. 

 

“Tyler?”

 

He swallowed. “Yeah?”

 

“I’d like to see it, your tattoo… _please_.”

 

Tyler grabbed his sleeve, then stopped himself. “What if… we _don’t_ …”

 

Tyler’s breath hitched in his throat as Josh put his hands at each side of his face, touching him as if he were some fine piece of art. “Then I’ll have to kiss you now, before we know, because I’ve never wanted to kiss someone as much as I do now in my entire life.”

 

When their lips met, no one cared about the tattoo for a while.

 

 

***

 

“It’s for you. Open it.”

 

Josh’s eyes lighted up as he took the present. “What for?”

 

Tyler smiled tenderly, looking down at the stylized alien next to his skeleton. “It reminded me of you.”

 

Needless to say, Josh loved the NASA hoodie his soulmate had got him. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading frens.
> 
> Check out my other works if you liked this one!
> 
> P.S. Jealousy to be updated soon. Stay tuned.


End file.
